12-27-2019, 10:17 AM
(12-27-2019, 09:40 AM)VLJ_imp Wrote: jimgl3, it doesn't need to be a sportbike to have satisfying grunt out of a corner, or a nice little rip of acceleration on top. I'm not asking for Super Duke R levels of power here. Not at all. Just a modest bump, appropriate to the class. Liter-bike UJMs of yesteryear offered quite a bit more power than the CB1100. I've owned sportbikes, and fast standards, and small-displacement standards. Having been a dealer for over a decade, I've ridden practically everything under the sun, and I recognize an anomaly when I see one.
I'm not trying to turn a CB1100 into a sportbike. Quite the opposite, in fact, which is evident by what I recommended to E11. I just want an 1140cc I4 from the best engine builder in the world to make the same power as nearly every other Japanese I4 of similar displacement, including Honda's very own old school CBs.
It's pretty simple. In Japanese or Euro motorcycling terms, a large motor with four cylinders usually equals X-amount of horsepower and torque, with no lack of torque down low. This particular Honda falls short in both areas, compared to practically everything that came before it. I understand why that one particular bigwig at Honda spec'd it out the way he did, and it is a wonderful motor when ridden within its intended design brief, but its enjoyment envelope could have easily been expanded to cover so much more territory, without sacrificing the original goals.
E11, while that raffle bike in your link is certainly pretty, it really doesn't make much more power than a stock CB1100. All it has is a pipe and remapping, which will bring you up to around 95 rwhp.
So what--if it can be explained in fairly basic terms, for I have not a smart mechanical mind--did the "particular bigwig at Honda" do to spec out the CB1100 in such a way that it was underpowered for some?
Anyone care to explain that a bit? What could have been done differently to give the bike the extra Hp that the bike could have attained? What would have been lost? Lower MPG?
Just curious.